History | History

From the Salem witches who were burnt at the stake to the Declaration of Independence signed on the ‘Fourth of July’, American history is full of misconceptions and mistakes. Here, author Jem Duducu busts some of the biggest myths and separates fact f

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The very first Thanksgiving happened almost 400 years ago—long before the nation was born. How did it evolve into America’s quintessential national holiday? Credit largely goes to two people—one, a name you know; the other, you’ve probably never h

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Who solved the problem of trench warfare? How did the war contribute to Britain's worst rail disaster? And were there really special battalions for short soldiers? Here, Seán Lang reveals 10 lesser known facts about the First World War

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With more than 5.7 million articles, Wikipedia is an invaluable resource, whether you’re throwing a term paper together at the last minute, or trying to answer mankind’s eternal question: Who was that masked man? We explore some of Wikipedia’s oddit

He wasn't the inspiration for the radio show/TV character. But - he was most probably the closest thing to a real life version of the Lone Ranger.

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The brave troops who stormed the beaches in France had a secret weapon: brilliantly designed boats that made the attack possible.

People like to vilify companies like DuPont now, but while corporations like Google show their absolute stupidity in refusing to work with our military, the WWII generation were adults and understood that the marriage of tech and national defense was crucial.

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It was a house call no physician would relish. On Dec. 14, 1799, three doctors were summoned to Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia to attend to a critically ill, 67-year-old man who happened to be known as “the father of our country.”

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WWII had come to a close, and the U.S. was the first to seize a new class of giant Japanese submarines. The next step was to analyze them quickly and then sink them, before the Russians could learn their secrets.

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It turns out that a whole lot of famous firsts are credited to the wrong people, due to politics, bad luck, or outright lies.

This is a very interesting article, but they are wrong about the Germans being first to space. The accepted definition of the boundary of space is SIGNIFICANTLY beyond what the Nazis reached with the V2.

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On Veterans Day, 1921, President Warren G. Harding presided over an interment ceremony at Arlington National Memorial. Since then, three more soldiers have been buried there—and one has been disinterred.

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A new book published by the Imperial War Museum features a rare collection of color photos from World War II, some of which haven’t been seen in over 70 years. From P-51D Mustangs and Flying Fortresses through to anti-aircraft spotters and flame hurling

The US Marines have resolved a longstanding question mark over the identities of the men in an iconic photograph from Iwo Jima, revealing the story of a Midwestern Private who went to his grave without ever claiming his role.

This picture has been the subject of so much drama and speculation over the years.

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1) France had more tanks, guns and men than Germany in 1940 It is always assumed that during the Second World War the Germans bludgeoned their way to victory with a highly modern and mechanised army and Air Force that was superior to anything the Allies c

I didn't know most of these. This is a great article if you are interested in WWII.

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Brian Hogg, senior historic preservation planner at the University of Virginia, thought they had discovered almost everything there was to know about the rotunda on campus, which was originally built by Thomas Jefferson who founded the university in 1819

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Three days after John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, U.S. intelligence officials told President Lyndon B. Johnson that they had confirmed that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had recently traveled to Mexico City to visit both the Cuban and Soviet em

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Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova wore the very first spacesuit patch in 1963 for the Vostok 6 mission. Fun fact: Her orange coverall hid the patch from public view. NASA continued the tradition in 1965 when Gordon Cooper, the command pilot on Gemini 5, designed one for the mission.

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This is the USS Iowa, the first of the largest, most powerful battleship class ever in the United States Navy, equipped with nine 16-inch (406mm) guns that could fire nuclear shells—the only American ship in history with this capability. This photo seri

This is AMAZING. It must of been terrifying if one of these things was unleashed on you.

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The site of the 1939 World’s Fair is home to a time capsule that was put in the ground in 1938 and is due to be unearthed and opened in the year 6939. The “Immortal Well” that houses the capsule is located in the Westinghouse Pavilion of the fairgrounds in Queens, New York, and remains untouched to this day.

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Doyle, who was born 156 years ago today, had found himself embroiled in a case that captured worldwide media attention for the fact that he, and not his famous sleuth, was trying to solve it. In 1906, a man named George Edalji was freed from prison after being sentenced for the crime of animal cruelty.

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These Autochromes - the first commercially available color photographic process - were taken by National Geographic Society photographers. The Society eventually moved on to other slightly more advanced photographic processes and finally to Kodachrome by 1938, but not before amassing a collection of more than 12,000 Autochromes.

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Few things can place a fictional story on a real-world timeline better than a Presidential speech can. In the case of the Sunday night mid-season premiere of Mad Men, the background appearance of a speech by Richard Nixon dates one scene precisely, at April 30, 1970, around 9 p.m. Eastern, when Nixon addressed the nation.

I admit, I was wrong on Sunday. I thought it was a different speech. If any of the rest of you were curious about it, here it is!

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Here are 15 people who not only made history, but got to tell the tale for decades. No matter how many people are involved in an important event, one of them has to be the last to leave this earth. Here are 15 people who not only made history, but got to tell the tale for decades to come.

Feast your eyes on not one, but two people who fought in the Revolutionary War!

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Joe Langdell was working as a junior accountant in Boston when he got the idea that he should join the Navy and go to sea. It was 1940 and America edged closer every day to joining the war that raged in Europe.

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Ahoy! Archaeologists excavating pirate Blackbeard's sunken ship, named Queen Anne's Revenge, recently unearthed from the wreckage various medical devices--and some of them look pretty darn terrifying. Among the grisly finds were a urethral syringe...

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Photographer Levi Bettweiser is the man behind the Rescued Film Project, an effort to find and rescue old and undeveloped rolls of film from the far corner

This is really amazing. It's 2014 and we are still learning new things about WWII. This film is an amazing time capsule that gives you a glimpse into WWII from a soldier's point of view. These pictures photos are like a mini-history lesson. Enjoy!

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The following article is republished from Uncle John's Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader.Next time you feel yourself coming down with a cold, thank your lucky stars for 21st-century medicine.MONDAYOn the morning of February 2, 1685, King Charles II of England

Yeah, this was a horrible way to go. George Washington had a similar situation-although not nearly as gruesome.

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It has been 100 years since the start of the First World War, which was fought for four years and claimed the lives of more than 6000 soldiers a day. Countries in Europe began marking the centenary earlier this year and the Tower of London, pictured abo

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From Sacramento to Los Angeles, Spain’s colonial fingerprints are plain to see throughout present-day California. But did you know that in the 18th century, Tsarist Russia carved out her own slice of this future state?

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Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents—but safeguarding state secrets was not among them. According to a recently released article by a CIA analyst, when Franklin was on a diplomatic mission in France, he allowed his offices to be penetrated by Bri

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For nearly two centuries, powdered wigs—called perukes—were all the rage. The chic hairpiece would have never become popular, however, if it weren’t for a venereal disease, a pair of self-conscious kings, and poor hair hygiene.

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For the history buffs of the world, we imagine there are few experiences as fulfilling as poring over volume after volume of black-and-white photographs, hunting for that rare shot of a notable figure or iconic location. As for the rest of us, we...

I like the way these photos, when done correctly, force you to view these people and scenes in a more contemporary way.

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By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Britain have given blow-by-blow details of King Richard III's death at the Battle of Bosworth more than 500 years ago and say two of many blows to his bare head could have killed him very...

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In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, people all over the world stood shoulder-to-shoulder in mourning, solidarity, sympathy and friendship with the people of the United States. Here are a few of those international reactions, both organized and spontaneo

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For every William the Conqueror there’s a Vlad the Impaler. And for every Richard the Lionheart there’s an Albert the Peculiar. Sixty of the most bizarre—and in some cases the most unflattering—epithets from history are listed here.

It would really be a shame to rise to the level of king and then be called "ALFONSO THE SLOBBERER." That just doesn't seem right.

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(Mural by Allyn Cox, U.S. Department of State)Two hundred years ago, the United States was locked in a bitter struggle against the British Empire known as the War of 1812. For the new republic, the stakes were profoundly high. This became especially clear

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The excitement Rodney Hilton Brown felt as a young boy searching for rusty Revolutionary War relics in forgotten Philadelphia attics has only deepened in his obsessive quest for iconic artifacts that tell the story of America’s bravery and cou

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Louis Zamperini , who was a World War II prisoner of war survivor as well as former Olympic distance runner, has died. He was the subject of Lauren Hillenbrand's book, “Unbroken,” which was adapted into a film by the Coen brothers, and

Definitely a real American hero. It is a shame that he never got to be the Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade.

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The incredibly intricate political battles that followed the 20th century's world wars are often overlooked in Europe's current era of porous borders. But merely decades ago, fortifications and roadblocks proliferated across the continent to delin

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Harold Edgerton was an artist, creating iconic photographic works that hand in galleries around the globe today. He was also an MIT professor called in when World War 2 began, specifically to create a new technique that would see Normandy photographed und

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There's been an explosion in the number of colorized photos lately. People find old black-and-white photos online, and meticulously add color to give us a new perspective on history. But recently one colorized image caught my eye after it was tweeted

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The AMC show Mad Men is in its final season, with its mid-season finale (yeah, I don't know what that means exactly either) airing this past Sunday. The show started with 1960 as its backdrop, and we now see characters in the world of 1969. A lot chan

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More than six decades after he left military service at the end of World War II, Bill Howland still tears up at one particularly bad memory among many bad memories. An Army medic, he removed the leg...

It's important to remember the sacrifices that many veterans still make - no matter how much time passes.

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More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel’s long-lost remains – lying at the bottom of the sea off the north

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For the first time in 27 years, the general public was allowed inside the New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park Tuesday in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World’s Fair...These portraits by photographer Mark Abramson show off the mix of people who attended the event, some of whom went as children to the World’s Fair in 1964 and 1965.

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In 1964, the New York World's Fair opened with radical technologies and dazzling futuristic displays.

Fifty-one million visitors descended on Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, N.Y. over two six-month seasons in 1964 and '65 to experience innovations like "picturephones," lunar crawlers and Belgian waffles. The Ford Times called it "a lively and lavish concoction of spectacular entertainment."

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Apollo 13 memorabilia belonging to the late astronaut Jack Swigert is auction-bound, 44 years after a last-minute change landed him aboard the ill-fated flight. The mementos are being put up for sale by Swigert's family.

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This Presidents Day article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency.Legendary for his tremendous energy and physical activity as president, Teddy Roosevelt might have been the original 90-pound weakling who spent his yout

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Today is Monday, Jan. 27, the 27th day of 2014. There are 338 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 27, 1944, during World War II, the Soviet Union announced the complete end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted

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Of the almost 200 current member states (and one observer state) of the United Nations, the British have, at some point in history, invaded and established a military presence in 171 of them.This is what British historian Stuart Laycock learned after hi

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To say Europe was in ruins after World War II would be using understatement. Cities were destroyed. Villages were obliterated. Societies themselves would take decades of rebuilding. Out of all that rubble, though, emerged one road in New York that's o